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ST. JOHN-LAND 



% J^iro-pnsgrritts. 



IN TWO LETTERS, SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN SOME YEARS HENCE. 









Your old men shall dream dreams." — Acts II. 17. 




PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY 

THOMAS WHITTAKER 

No. 3 Bible House, New York. 

1864. 

ft 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

W. A. MUHLENBERG, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of 

New York. 



R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 

feton §ttilbmcj;, 
81, 83, and 85 Centre si, K Y. 



St. Luke's Hospital, Oct. 21, 1864. 

Rigut Rev. Horatio Potter, D.D., LL.D. 

My Dear Bishop : — 

Before circulating my pamphlet, I respectfully offer it for your 

perusal, and shall be very happy and grateful if it be accompanied with 

your approbation. 

Faithfully yours, 

W. A. Muhlenberg. 



33 West 24th St., Nov. 1, 1861 
My Dear Dr. Muhlenberg : — 

I thank you for allowing me to look upon your picture of St. 
Johnland. It fully answers all the expectations I had formed from your 
conversational sketches. Surely, the idea you present of a " Christian 
Industrial Community, a Rural Settlement, in which the worthy, diligent 
poor may have becoming abodes, with the means and rewards of diligence, 
together with the provisions of the Gospel" — (what a contrast to the 
crowded pestilential places, surrounded by moral infection, in which many 
of them now dwell in this great city !), will not be placed before the Chris- 
tain minds of this community in vain. In saying that, however, I must not 
be understood to approve of all the religious features of your plan ; but the 
good so largely preponderates, that I earnestly hope you will find favor 
in this, as you have found favor in the past. God put in it into the hearts 
of the Laity to help you, and give you length of days, and strength as 
well, to work for Him, His Church, and His poor ! 

Affectionately, your friend and brother, 

Horatio Potter. 



$0 

EOBEKT B. MINTURN, 

The Poor Mian's Friend, and. IMEine, 

THESE PAGES ARE 

glffeethmaielg Inscribed. 

W. A, Muhlenberg. 
\ 



ST. JOHNLAND : A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 



LETTEE I. 



New York, 

June — , 187—. 

Deae L : 

You recollect that beautiful plain which we used 

to admire in our drives through the upper part of ■ 

county, gently sloping towards the south, with wooded hills 
on the north, diversified by groups of trees and a brook 
winding through it? I have lately been there. The few 
cottages then upon it have become a goodly village, with a 
pretty rural church in the midst. The houses, much like the 
original ones, are at intervals on wide avenues radiating 
from the church, and shaded by some of those fine oak and 
elm trees yet standing in their ancient grandeur. There 
are several larger buildings, and two of good size and pro- 
portions are seen a little distance from the town. 

And now I am going to make you a letter, perhaps a long 

one, out of the visit of Cousin M and myself to the place, 

in which I have become greatly interested. They call it St. 
Johnland, and not inappropriately, you will agree with me 
when you know more about it. The object for which it was 
founded, and which it still accomplishes, is a most admirable 
one. It is to enable certain classes of the industrious poor to 



8 ST. johnland: 

exchange their wretched abodes in the city for comfortable 
rural homes, and, at the same time, to be sure of the means 
of support. How this is done will appear as I go on. 

The whole property — the land and all the buildings — be- 
longs to a corporation, managing its affairs by a Board of 
Trustees. The immediate jurisdiction of the place is exer- 
cised by a Pastor, a clergyman of our church, and a Super- 
intendent, in their respective spheres. The Pastor is the 
Rector ; for St. Johnland, you must be informed, is an or- 
ganized parish, and all the inhabitants for the time being are 
his parishioners. This is understood by those who hire the 
cottages ; and with most of them the benefit of pastoral care 
has been one of the inducements for their coming into the 
place. The Superintendent has the charge of its temporal 
concerns. An important part of his business is to secure 
employment for the people, which consists of work given out 
by clothing and other furnishing houses in the city, that pay 
their hands fair prices (facilities being established for the 
regular transportation of the work and materials to and fro), 
and lesser kinds of profitable handicraft. The cottages have 
been built by individuals for the purpose of furthering the 
enterprise, most of whom had also in view particular fami- 
lies which they wished to aid by furnishing them with sepa- 
rate homelike dwellings at much lower rents than they were 
paying for dismal rooms in the city. A number of the cot- 
tages have been put up by the corporation, the proprietor 
of them all, by whomsoever built. The revenue arising from 
the rents goes towards the support of the Pastor and Super- 
intendent, and subordinate agents, often leaving a balance 
for local improvements. 

The foregoing information we derived from the Superin- 
tendent, to whose office we had been directed at the house 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 9 

of the Pastor, where M and I had first gone with our 

introduction, but had not the good fortune to find him at 
home. The former gentleman received us very courteously, 
and, after seeing our note to the Pastor, was pleased to say 
he would put himself at our service. The easiest way now 
of proceeding with my story will be to give you some of our 
further conversation with him, as well as what we saw, as I 
have jotted it down in my journal. 

"Thus you see," he said, "our settlement, in its main 
feature, is a Church Industrial Community." 

" Of course, then," I replied, " it is, at least, a very orderly 
community." 

" It ought to be, independently of its professed Christian 
character, considering how much good order is in our power. 
The houses are hired monthly or quarterly, on condition of 
the tenants' good behavior and conformity to the published 
rules of the corporation. At the same time we are consider- 
ate in enforcing that condition, and, I trust, are never arbi- 
trary. "When a tenant proves really objectionable, he is 
admonished and warned in that spirit of brotherly kindness 
to which, in all our dealings, we acknowledge ourselves here 
especially bound. He is then allowed opportunity for 
amendment ; if none appears, he is notified to leave. As to 
openly vicious characters, we have so few attractions for 
them, that we are rarely troubled with gross misconduct. 
The influence of the Church, with its schools and various 
agencies, is our great safeguard. Our Pastor is really the 
shepherd of his flock. He has some admirable co-workers in 
several excellent ladies, who have taken up their residences 
in houses of their own hard by, for the sake of such useful- 
ness as they are peculiarly capable of among the people. 
"We have also a society of young men, active in doing good. 



10 st. johnlakd: 

All these working together, you see, we have a pretty effect- 
ive moral police." 

" Preventives," I added, " better than our detectives. Do 
you find the people generally contented ?" 

" The working people, almost without exception. They 
can live here only in habits of industry which forestall dis- 
content ; most of them having had experience, which teaches 
them to value their present circumstances." 

At the invitation of our friend we walked through the 

town. Both M and I were struck with the neatness 

and appearance of order which marked the dwellings, as we 
noticed them through the open doors and windows, showing 
us varied and happy sights of busy hands and cheerful faces. 
Our eyes fell continually upon sewing machines, not idle, 
loaned to the tenants by the corporation, or given to them 
by their friends. 

Stopping at one of the doors, we saw a woman knitting and 
listening to a pale girl reading at her side. After wishing 
her good-morning, we inquired whether that was the whole 
of her family. "The young ones," she said, " belonging here 
are at school." We then learned that she was one of several 
middle-aged women having the charge of orphan and desti- 
tute young children, of whom there is a good number in the 
place. Instead of being herded together in one great house, 
as in our ordinary institutions for such beneficiaries, they 
are committed in small companies to capable women unfit 
for active work, receiving every week enough for themselves 
and their little families. The children of sufficient age go 
out to school. " This family mode of caring for the parent- 
less and forsaken young," our guide remarked, "is practi- 
cable only in a settlement like this, and is one of its many fa- 
cilities. It is not the cheapest method of such charity (cheap- 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 11 

li ess is not a prime consideration in our benevolent opera- 
tions), but it has peculiar advantages. Obviously there can 
be a more discriminating and less mechanical training, more 
of kindly individual dealing, more chance to counteract bad 
example, more of special teaching and influence, where a 
matron has ten or a dozen instead of two hundred for her 
charge. Besides all which, a maintenance is thus afforded 
to respectable indigent women, without putting them in a 
position of dependence upon charity. I ought to add, how- 
ever, that the plan is an experiment. Some of the trustees 
are in favor of a general orphan-house." 

You will be glad to learn that many of the female tenants 
are the widows of fallen soldiers in the late civil war. By 
the means here afforded, beneficence, in extending its hand 
to them, did not break up their families, but gave them 
homes where they can keep their children about them, with 
opportunities both for their education and for their acquiring 
useful branches of industry. Several of their sons are learn- 
ing trades here. To make such provision for those who so 
richly deserve it, was, I understand, one of the original pur- 
poses in founding the colony, and has gained it many friends. 
Patriotism, stimulating philanthropy, has built a number of 
these houses ; and many more might be built with funds 
which St. Johnland might justly claim of the State. 

" Why, Janet, is that you I" exclaimed M to a woman 

who came running up to her from one of the houses ; " is 
that you ?" 

" In truth it is; and is that your blessed self?" 

" And how did you find your way here ?" 

" So the good Lord was pleased to have it ; but come in — 
come in," and in we went to her domicil, the first she had 



12 st. johnland: 

ever had, fit to be called a home. Its tidy looks were some 
sign that she deserved it. 

" A very different sort of place this," said M to her, 

" from that where I once saw you V 9 

" You may well say so. That rear room in the attic, where 
the wind through the chinks kept us shivering in the winter, 
and the burning sun on the roof half-roasted us in the sum- 
mer ; where the most I could earn, sewing all day and some- 
times nearly all night, scarcely fed me and my children, if I 
had to keep them in clothes ; and as for the rent, the landlord 
would have put us into the street more than once, if good 
Mrs. Brown had not helped me pay it — and how is that dear 
lady ?" 

" As well as usual, I believe." 

" When you see her, thank her for all her kindness to me, 
and tell her that now I can do as she used to bid me about 
the children. 'Mind, Janet,' she would say, whenever I 
went to see her, ' mind and bring up your children in the 
fear of the Lord.' Yery good advice for her to give — very 
proper advice — but not so \ easy for one like me to follow. 
Dear Mrs. Brown, I could not help thinking to myself, with 
her large airy house, with study-rooms and play-rooms, with 
books and all sorts of amusements for her children, besides 
good teachers and good companions for them all the while, 
might indeed bring them up well; but what chance was 
there for me % It was hard to shut up my young ones in my 
little place, and, if I let them out, it was to mix with the rude 
children of the godless people in the next room ; if I sent 
them over into the square to play, it was no better. They 
saw bad examples in-doors and out. They were a terrible 
set crowded together in that house. Drinking and fighting 
going on every night ; and the shocking language we were 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 13 

obliged to hear ! What could I do but to pray the Lord to 
keep from harm them he had given me ?" 

" And how was it you came here ?" 

" Mrs. Brown heard of this place, and she knew one of the 
Trustees. He got me this house, and I pay less for it than 
I did for that garret. Now that Sammy is old enough to 
work in the shops, and his sister can take turns with me at 
the sewing machine, we get on right well, and all of us go 
to church on Sunday dressed as decent as other folks." 

" Besides having enough to eat ?" 

" Aye ; good bread, milk that is milk, fresh vegetables, 
with as much meat as is good for us." 

" And no excuse now for not bringing up your children 
well?" 

" No ; they are growing up in the right way, thank the 
Lord ! and I may thank our good minister, too. Every now 
and then he gives me a calL" 

We stopped at several of the houses where the Superin- 
tendent had a word or two of business with the people. We 
were pleased to observe the pleasant and familiar terms on 
which he seemed to be with them, convincing us he was no 
mere functionary in his office. 

" What are the shops," I asked, " where Janet says her 
boy is at work ?" 

" A range of low buildings off yonder, where several 
branches of trade are carried on upon a moderate scale, but 
large enough to pay, and to be a good school for the boys in 
a variety of mechanic work." 

" You have, then," I said, " a share of stout boys among 
your population, who may not be always the most orderly 
part of it?" 

"Boys are boys ; but as most of them have grown up with 



14 st. johnxand: 

us, they have had the advantage of teaching and training, 
and of living in a wholesome moral atmosphere ; so that 
they ought to be better than your city boys in the same rank 
of life. After they enter the shops, they have the privilege 
of evening school and of familiar lectures in art and science. 
Those who are fond of reading find a good supply of books 
in our lending library, and a number of them attend a Bible 
class instructed by one of the ladies. The young men cultivate 
their acquaintance, often having them at their rooms ; and it 
was through their good influences that, of about twenty per- 
sons lately confirmed here by the Bishop, nearly half were 
boys. We lay ourselves out to do our best with these juve- 
nile but important members of our commonwealth, making 
it a practical school, from which we hope many will go out 
good men and useful citizens. "We encourage them in health- 
ful sports. Saturday is a half-holiday with them, when, 
according to their conduct at school or work, they have the 
playground, the woods, or the lake for their amusement. 
"What with ball, boating, fishing, skating, etc., our lads have 
a good time of it." 

" And what for the girls ?" 

They have their half-holiday on Wednesday for their 
rambles, etc., as on Saturday afternoon they help their 
mothers to get in order for the Sabbath. Besides their 
school learning, they are taught the various kinds of needle- 
work. The ladies always have some of them in their 
houses teaching them to be good housemaids." 

" Then you don't think it necessary to give them accom- 
plishments ?" 

" We do not provide for it ; but when talent or genius is dis- 
covered in a boy or girl, it is not left wholly unfostered. All 
learn to sing. The foreman of one of the shops has drilled 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 15 

some of the boys into quite a respectable band. Occasionally 
Ave have concerts, and on a fine summer evening you will hear 
music of one kind or other in all directions. 

" ' Bessie's Memorial.' What does that mean?" I asked, 
pointing to those words in old English, on a small tablet over 
the door of one of the houses — a remarkably pretty one, 
with a neat gardeli-plot around it. 

"To tell," he replied, "that the cottage was erected as a 
memorial of a child by a fond mother, the wife of a gentle- 
man, one of our most liberal patrons. The little girl delight- 
ed to come up here and play with the children, and in her 
simple way, would sometimes wish that this were her home. 
She died suddenly of the croup, and her mother found a not 
unnatural consolation in putting up this as a token of her 
child's affection for the place, and to be used for one of the 
little families of orphans. She attached to it also a small 
endowment for the benefit of the housekeeper. The whole 
probably cost less than many a proud marble to a departed 
darling in some of your cemeteries ; but where among them 
all is a monument so Christian or so touching ?" The mother 
comes every summer to see Bessie's orphan-house and bring 
gifts for the children, who in turn fetch her flowers from 
Bessie's garden. 

" In three instances before this, parents had built cottages, 
with endowments to meet the rent, making them free cot- 
tages, calling them after their living children, in the hope of 
cherishing in them an interest in the poor ; one of them we 
have just passed, on which you might have read 'Harry's 
Villa.' " 

" I should think," I said, " that many parents would do the 
same. It would not much hinder their enjoyment of their 
own country villas." 



16 ST. JOHNLAND : 

" Knowing this region of country, I need not inquire 
about the healthfulness of your place, as far as the situation 
is concerned ; but you sometimes need a doctor ?" 

"For a while," he said, " we had one living among us, but 
his experience had been so much among the poor of the city 
that he was unfitted for dealing with ours, with the considera- 
tion which we show them as our Christian brethren. He 
seemed to think they were only the poor, and treated them 
and his few more respectable patients with a marked differ- 
ence of manner. Of late all our medical needs have been met 
by an excellent practitioner living midway between this and 

ville. He comes every day ; goes first to the houses 

of the ladies, who have districted the place among them for 
a sort of hygienic supervision. From them he learns any- 
thing that may require his attention beyond what he knows. 
He makes his visits, leaves written directions in special cases, 
if he has any, with the lady in whose district they may be, 
and returns. Once a week he makes a general professional 
visitation of the place. For these services he receives a 
salary from the Trustees, which is made up more or less by 
a small amount assessed on each of the tenants — a health-tax 
we call it — as much for their being kept well, as for being 
treated when they are ill, including medicine." 

" An economical arrangement," I observed, " on the prin- 
ciple that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

We now turned our steps towards the school-house. On 
our way the Superintendent was accosted by a little girl, 
saying that her mother wanted him to come right away to 
her house, where Mrs. Mac was carrying on awfully. Upon 
which he left us, showing us our way. 

The school of boys and girls, in separate apartments, with 
separate play-grounds, under female teachers, you can ima- 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 17 

gine without my description, provided you will fancy the 
scholars unexceptionably clean and giving pleasing indica- 
tions of plentiful feeding ; and the rooms with high ceilings, 
well ventilated, and with nothing of the school fragrance in 
their atmosphere. 

The singing which the girls struck up for our entertain- 
ment was uncommonly sweet, showing some cultivation of 
the principal voices. They sang a lively rural ballad, which 
I told the teacher I was better pleased with than if they had 
begun, " I want to be an angel," or " I have a Father," etc. ; 
adding that I thought it was unfavorable to reality and the 
cherishing of religious sensibility, for children to be uttering 
sacred words, often addresses to the Almighty, whenever 
they are called upon to tune up their pipes. She assented, 
and handed me a little book : Our Hymns and Songs. The 
hymns are simple, not childish, and meant for real acts of 
devotion ; the songs are moral, sentimental, playful, full of 
country life ; all in sympathy with boy and girl nature. "We 
looked into the boys' department, where a young man, whom 
we took to be one of the society already spoken of, was teach- 
ing a class of the older scholars. He was evidently a novice 
at the business, trying to scold the boys into quiet and atten- 
tion, while he was all in a fret himself. Perhaps he was dis- 
concerted by our presence ; at any rate, as it did not help 
him, we withdrew, and went again into the girls' school to 
see it " let out." The children stood perfectly silent for a 
minute or two. The teacher read a verse from the Book of 
Proverbs, repeated it twice, and said she expected them to 
remember it the next morning, and tell her why she had 
read to them that particular text. We supposed it had refer- 
ence to something which had occurred during the day. A 

hymn was sung in reverent tune and time. " The grace of 

2 



18 st. johnland: 

our Lord " was repeated [by all, when, after a moment's 
pause, they hastened to equip themselves for departure. 
On inquiring whether the attendance of the scholars was 
regular and punctual, we learned it was secured by an item 
in the agreement on which the cottages are hired. 

The Superintendent, as soon as he was with us again, was 
anxious to know how we were pleased ; and we thought him 
a little disappointed at the terms in which we expressed our 
gratification. They were positive, but not in the com- 
parative or superlative degree which I opined he rather 
expected. He wanted to know whether we had not noticed 
this or that boy or girl whom he minutely described and 
told us little anecdotes about, showing how much he was 
interested in these nurseries of St. Johnland. We were more 
curious to know what was the trouble he had been called to 
settle. 

"One of our tenants," he said, "will tipple now and 
then ; when she does, she is terribly abusive. I found her at 
her neighbor's, giving vent to her tongue at a worse rate 
than usual. I had to stand a volley myself before I could 
get her home." 

" I thought you had no such characters among you." 

" We do not altogether decline the work of reformation, 
though we do not formally propose it as one of our objects. 
Sometimes it is clearly a duty, as in the case of this woman. 
So long as she refrains from the bottle she is a steady worker, 
and her house and two girls are patterns of neatness. Some 
of her friends urged us to give her a trial, believing that 
when removed from the neighborhood of dram-shops she 
might be again the woman she once was. They have not 
been wholly disappointed. The change has been a great 
thing for her, though it has not yet done all it will. She is 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 19 

so ashamed of herself after one of these outbreaks, which 
are becoming much less frequent, we are in great hopes of 
saving her. It was only yesterday one of the ladies, whom 
she calls her good angel, was giving her credit for keeping 
her resolutions so well — perhaps in language of praise that 
was too much for her." 

" I suppose you cannot get rid of the poison alto- 
gether?" 

" A man's house is his castle here as elsewhere. So we 
can't go to searching ; but an express stipulation with the 
tenants forbids their keeping liquor in their houses. We 
sometimes suspect visitors of being over-kind to their 
friends." 

" I can understand your forbearance," I said, " in the in- 
stance you have just stated ; but you would riot retain a con- 
firmed drunkard — a man, I mean % " 

" ISTo ; and yet we have been sorely tried with one lately — 
a most industrious, capable fellow, ready at turning his hand 
to anything and doing it well — satisfactory in every respect 
from Monday morning until Saturday night, when, as sure 

as he gets the chance, off he travels to ville and has 

a jovial time of it at the. grocery. He comes back late, 
quarrels with his wife, who at last gets him to bed, and then 
snores away the Sunday. With all his cleverness, we should 
doubt the duty of tolerating such an example ; but his poor 
wife and children importune us so piteously whenever we 
threaten to eject him, that for their sakes we must still bear 
with him ; — for his own sake, too, since there is so much to 
like in him. Maybe he'll hear us begging him to add 
prayers to the vows he so often makes never to touch the 
vile stuff again." 

" It may be right and necessary," I said, " for you to dis- 



20 st. johnland: 

miss a disorderly tenant after you have exhausted upon him 
your efforts for reformation. But if he is obliged to pack up 
and remove his furniture to he knows not where, it may not 
seem quite right to him. He would call it putting him and 
his family into the street, and complain of damage and loss. 
Would he not ? " I asked. 

" If there was any show of reason on his side we could 
afford to compromise matters, as such troubles could occur 
but seldom. In cases where we have any doubt what sort 
of people the applicants for houses may prove, whom never- 
theless we dislike to refuse, we recommend them not to bring 
their goods and chattels, but to hire from us, for a while at 
least, what they require. Of course there are difficulties and 
troubles of various kinds in carrying on our establishment — 
but what good can be done without them ? " 

" As long as your population," I went on to remark, " is 
of its present size, or not much greater, your government and 
management of the people will be easy, and the rights of the 
corporation not disputed ; but if you should grow and come 
to be a town of any magnitude, will not a new order of things 
arise? "Will not the people begin to think of their own 
rights, and to ask for a voice in the conduct of affairs? 
Will not your St. Johnland catch the spirit of our Yankee 
.and?" 

" Our population," replied the Superintendent, who by 
this time you will see was a thoughtful, sensible man, " is 
likely to grow but moderately from within. Most of our 
young people as they come of age, and sooner, will leave 
us, regarding this as the place of their education for wider 
and more stirring fields of labor. With that we are content. 
Our mission will in great part be fulfilled, if those whom we 
have snatched from the world in its depths, return to it in 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 21 

the persons of their children or themselves, for its posts of 
usefulness and respectability. The Trustees," he continued, 
"have looked at the future of their enterprise. They do 
not contemplate it as culminating in a great town. They 
see that, to retain its character and accomplish its original 
objects, it must be kept within moderate bounds. Recollect 
it is a parish. As such it should not be too large for the 
pastoral care of one man, with an assistant. Our compara- 
tive smallness is our safety. All overgrown parishes dete- 
riorate in Christian spirit, and have less of moral power in 
proportion as they become powers of the world. With re- 
gard to church-settlements like this, the policy will be to 
multiply small ones in various directions, instead of allowing 
ernj one to become very large. Alas! for St. Johnland, 
should it ever become a wealthy church establishment ! To 
save it from such a calamity, it had better be limited by 
legal enactments to its present size. For my part, I wish 
this were already done." 

Our obliging friend, on whose time we had drawn so 
largely, was now called off again on business. Before part- 
ing with us, he said he would be sorry that we should leave 
without seeing two of their institutions, with which he knew 
we would be particularly gratified — St. John's Inn and the 
Infirmary. As the latter was the nearer, he directed us to 
it, saying it was sufficient for us to mention his name at the 
door. We found it somewhat removed from the more active 
part of the place — a kind of Hotel Dieu — a shelter for a 
class of helpless ones which, until this establishment, had 
not come within the provision of our charities. I mean 
chronic invalids and incurables — persons discharged from 
hospitals or not eligible to them, as disabled in various 
ways, yet too comfortable in health to need treatment or 



22 ST. JOHNLAND : 

nursing. They cannot pursue the occupations on which they 
once depended for support, and yet may live on for years, 
with destitution all the while staring them in the face. They 
are a class peculiarly to be compassionated. You recollect 
there were always some of them in St. Luke's Hospital, 
which departed from its rules in retaining them as long as 
there was room enough to spare in the wards. When it was 
filled with proper patients, several of the friends of the hos- 
pital started the infirmary here, which has now something 
of an endowment. It is a large, square building, in the 
midst of pleasant grounds, and ingeniously adapted to the 
peculiar condition of its boarders ; having broad and easy 
stairways, low, deep-seated windows, wide, sunshiny halls 
furnished with lounges, wheel-chairs, and other appliances 
for the assistance of the chronic invalid. Not that all have 
nothing to do but lounge and wheel themselves about. 
"If any man will not work, neither shall he eat," is the 
universal condition of place in the settlement so far as it is 
practicable, and it is not dispensed with here. Accordingly, 
we saw a number of them at different kinds of light work. 
Among the women, whom should we see but Dr. B.'s old 
cook, Molly, now stone-blind, knitting away for life ! They 
are classified according to their ability ; and by industrial 
arrangements, as considerate of their condition as conducive 
to their happiness, they are enabled collectively to do not a 
little towards rendering the house self-supporting. 

We could not stop longer to visit the Inn, an asylum for 
destitute Christian old men, as we had now to be leaving to 
be in time for the train at the station, a little more than a 
mile off. We called again at the house of the Rector. We 
found him a fatherly, kind-looking man, about the age of 
forty. He regretted he had not seen us in the morning, and 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 23 

had been kept by a press of engagements from going in 
search of us. He hoped we would visit St. Johnland again. 
I felt inclined to do so, and gave him a hint that I should be 
pleased to spend a Sunday in the place, that I might see it 
in its more religious aspects. Upon this we received a cor- 
dial invitation, the sequel of which I will give you in another 
letter. 

Yours affectionately, 

K- — . 



24 ST. JOHNLAND 



LETTER II. 

Kew York, 

June — , 187 — . 
My Dear L : 

As you assure me that my last letter was not too 
long, and that you are waiting to hear about my Sunday in 
Churchtown, as it might also be called, I will resume my 
story without fear of trespassing on your patience ; 

Last Saturday evening found me (M remaining at 

home to hear her old pastor, on a visit to the city) at St. 
John's Inn, the asylum mentioned in my last, for destitute 
Christian old men. It is a spacious and comfortable house, 
the largest in the settlement, and admirably planned for the 
comfort of its guests. Several of its rooms are reserved for 
the accommodation of visitors like myself. Erom the win- 
dows of that which I occupied there is a lovely land and 
water view — a grateful prospect, I thought, for those who 
must have so much leisure to sit looking at it, and amuse 
themselves with discovering new objects in the scene. This, 
I dare say, was thought of in choosing the site of the house, 
for old men, especially such as were formerly used to visits 
from their friends, might find their time, in such seclusion, 
hanging heavy on their hands. Those here, I understand, 
who are able, and not particularly fond of books, lend a hand 
in gardening, have some care of the grounds, etc. 

I rose early and went out on the piazza in front of the 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 25 

house, where I found one of the sojourners of the Inn up 
before me, and enjoying the " sweet hour of prime." From 
his snowy, flowing locks, clear complexion, time-worn but 
genial countenance, he looked as if he might be the orna- 
ment of the house. He at once saluted me, wishing me joy 
of such lovely weather for a Lord's day morning. 

" One could wish," I said, " that we had always so sweet 
a sky on the Lord's day." 

" "We shall have it," he replied, " on the everlasting Lord's 
day." 

" Tes, that glorious Sunday when the Lord himself shall 
be the Sun." 

Finding ourselves thus in sympathy, we fell into pleasant 
and discursive conversation. In the course of it, he informed 
me of the order of the family, the kindly spirit and good 
temper that pervaded it, with an occasional murmur from 
one or two of those complaining mortals who you know, he 
said, have got into the way of it without meaning much by 
it, and are really grateful at heart. There are about thirty 
in the house, but a number besides are scattered through 
the cottages, where they feel more at home, finding things 
more in accordance with their former modes of life. This 
suits the Trustees, who prefer keeping the house for those 
who have seen better days, and who can thus pleasantly 
consort together. One such was my old friend, whose story, 
as he gave it to me in brief, was this : 

He was once prosperous in business ; had held a respect- 
able position in the mercantile world, and was hoping to 
retire on a moderate capital, when, drawn into some unfor- 
tunate speculations by his son, for whom he largely endorsed, 
he was completely ruined. After many efforts, he was never 
able to retrieve himself. He had become a widower, and 



26 



st. johnland: 



his only son, having gone abroad as an adventurer, had 
never been heard of. He maintained himself for a number 
of years writing as a clerk in one of the houses with which 
he had formerly done business. Happily his misfortunes led 
him to seek and find the treasures which are beyond the 
changes of earth. "My eyes were opened," he said, " to see 
how I could still make my fortune without danger of ever los- 
ing it again." He became a communicant, and was a regular 

one in Church, of this city. Increasing years and 

repeated attacks of illness , disqualifying him for his office, 
he was at length obliged to resign it. On parting with him, 
the firm made him a handsome present, on which he lived at 
the cheapest boarding-house he could find, in a little fourth- 
story room, getting a small deduction from his board for 
taking but two meals a day. When he was well enough, 
he went to the church he had been accustomed to attend ; 
but, no longer rich enough to pay pew-rent, he made his 
way to the free seats in the gallery, where nobody knew 
him. He went to the sacrament, but nobody spoke to him 
afterwards. His clothes had grown shabby, and he had be- 
come so changed in his looks that he passed for some poor 
stranger, to whom, of course, none are very likely to speak, 
notwithstanding he has been with them at the table of the 
Lord. His means exhausted, his landlady gave him significant- 
hints that she was herself too poor to give bed and board 
gratis. He had not the heart to let his extremity be known 
to his former benefactors, but he summoned courage to pen 
a letter to one who had once been a favorite boy in his 
store, and whom he had helped forward in the world — then 
a well-to-do country merchant. The letter was immediately 
answered with a remittance, which satisfied the landlady for 
several weeks, by the end of which his boy had come to 



A RETRO -PROSPECTUS. 27 

town on purpose to see him, and to take him to his own home ; 
but, as he had already a large family of his own, the old man 
would not consent to become an additional burden, and de- 
clined the generous offer. The grateful apprentice then spent 
some days in the forlorn hope of collecting a few debts 
long given up by his master. While engaged in this effort, 
he fell in with a friend who gave him a note to the Presi- 
dent of the St. Johnland Trustees. That gentleman saw at 
once that this house was the identical desideratum, and here 
(to go no more into detail) the old man expects to end his 
days, repenting of the struggles of pride which for awhile 
made him averse to entering such an asylum, but for which 
he now overflows with gratitude ; and where good food, the 
comforts due to his age and worth, and a mind at peace with 
God and man, have been restoratives to his enfeebled frame, 
and make him almost forget his years. 

A bell rang us to breakfast. I might have taken mine in 
private, but it suited my purpose and feelings as well to go 
to the refectory. Some twenty of the venerables gathered 
there in their best habiliments. One of them, an emeritus 
clergyman, revered as the senior of the household, read a 
chapter and a few appropriate prayers in so faint and tremu- 
lous a voice that he could scarcely be heard. As a compli- 
ment not ungrateful to him, he was asked to do that service 
on Sunday mornings, one of the young men living in the 
house officiating on the other mornings of the week. The 
table and utensils were clean to brightness. The meal was 
plain and abundant, and very nicely prepared, from which 
portions were sent up to several who could not leave their 
rooms. After breakfast my old friend of the piazza directed 
my attention to the pictures which covered the walls of seve- 
ral of the rooms and of the hall — a variety of good prints 



28 ST. JOHKLAND : 

from Scripture and history. He made intelligent remarks 
about their design and execution, and said he often enter- 
tained his brethren with conversational lectures upon them. 
In the library, too, where he detained me for some time, he 
showed himself quite at home with the books. 

It being within an hour of church-time, I proposed going 
to the Sunday-school, when I was told there was none, but 
children's church in the afternoon instead. Good, thought I ; 
glad that there was one place where, because of Christian 
day-schools, it is not necessary to exact twice as much of the 
junior as of the senior Christians on the day of rest. The 
poor children you may sometimes see after their lessons, for 
an hour and more, in a crowded school-room, marched to 
church up two pair of stairs, and there packed away in a 
loft for nearly two hours more, and carried through the same 
process in the afternoon, are not likely to have a very appre- 
ciative sense of what they sing : 

" I have been there, and still would go ; 
'Tis like a little heaven below." 

As I made a tour of observation through the streets, 
I observed a lady — one of those good matrons I supposed — 
stopping for a moment in houses, at intervals, hurrying up 
new-comers in the place, who might else be laggards at 
church, to which the bell was now giving its invitation in 
tones peculiarly sweet to my ear, and to my eyes what a beau- 
tiful sight it called out ! The Johnland folks, all in their 
clean Sunday attire — " young men and maidens, old men and 
children," — moving along from various directions towards 
the central House of the Lord. I will not stop to describe the 
edifice any further than to say that it is a pleasing structure, 
oblong, with transepts and a tower with a cross-tipped spire. 



A KETRO-PROSPECTUS. 29 

The interior is simple, with windows ample enough to let 
in more than " a dim religions light." There are no pews, 
but open and free seats, on benches unusually wide apart. 
The semi-circular chancel, including the organ, is arranged 
much like that in the chapel of St. Luke's Hospital, having 
over the Lord's Table, in illuminated letters, the words : This 
is His commandment, that we should believe on the name 
of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave 
its commandment. I had observed the same hung up in 
frames in a number of the houses, as the great St. Johnland 
text. The church might hold some six or seven hundred peo- 
ple ; but there were hardly so many as that then present. The 
congregation, however, did not appear to leave much empty 
space in the church, and certainly they did not leave it 
empty of sound when they opened their mouths in the Venite, 
and seemed indeed "heartily to rejoice in the strength of 
their salvation." There appeared no listlessness in the ser- 
vice, but a sympathetic earnestness throughout. The respons- 
es were loud and full, and in prayer all the congregation 
were on their knees. At the reading of the lessons they look- 
ed at the minister, listening to him, thus encouraging him to 
read so as to gain their attention, instead of losing part of 
the chapter while finding it in their Bibles and by closing 
them before it is done. Led by the organ, which sustained 
but did not drown their voices, and by a choir of men and 
boys near the chancel, their antiphonal chanting, and still 
more their chorale in psalm and hymn, were the most ani- 
mating I ever joined in ; and not to join in was impossible. 
A collection was made in plates carried around by some of 
the choir-boys, which the people were informed was half for 
the support of the church and half for the orphan-cottages. 
I felt some disappointment at seeing another than the 



30 ST. JOHNLAND I 

Pastor take his place in the pulpit, but I forgot it as I be- 
came interested in the sermon, from the words of St. John : 
" Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one 
another." The preacher showed that, partakers together of 
the same salvation, we shall be drawn together by a common 
yet peculiar affection in proportion as we know what that 
salvation is, and consider the unspeakable and unmerited 
love from which it flows. The saved are bound together as 
the saved, in the bonds of the love evangelical. The filial 
heart towards God, he further showed, constrains the bro- 
therly heart towards all his adopted children in Christ. 
Charity he made inseparable from faith. He concluded his 
discourse by reminding his hearers, although a stranger in 
the place, what especial cause they had for feeling the truth 
he had been setting forth, and how the providence of God had 
seconded His grace in favoring them with extraordinary 
privileges and advantages, which called for extraordinary 
measures of gratitude towards Him, and of good will and 
kindness towards one another. He was happy in visiting 
the settlement, rejoiced in its prosperity, thought it a beau- 
tiful application of Christianity, which he thanked his 
Episcopal brethren for inaugurating, and took pleasure 
in stating that his own and other Christian bodies were in 
several places doing the like. "Let us," he said, "have 
our St. Johnlands of every communion that holds the faith 
of John. They will all be so much alike that we shall have 
in them new grounds of inter-communion, and new bonds of 
fellowship. Finding ourselves so entirely one in the Faith, 
we shall keep in due subordination the doctrines in which 
we are apart. Oui love to one another on account of the 
glorious whole will absorb all jealousy and invidious com- 
parisons touching the minor parts. The discords of discre. 



A KETRO-rKOSPECTUS. 31 

pant views and feelings will be solved in the harmonies of 
Faith, Hope, and Charity. We shall have no ifs or huts 
when we say : Peace be with all them who love our Lord 
Jesus Christ in sincerity." 

Amen, and amen, cried the Pastor, who offered up the Col- 
lect for charity, and went on to pour out his full heart in 
further effusions responsive to the sentiments just delivered, 
and imploring the Holy Spirit to spread and deepen them 
in all Christian hearts. On coming out of church the peo- 
ple were full of the sermon, the fervent delivery of which 
interested those who did not take it all in. Most of them, 
however, evidently did, as it was expressed in exceedingly 
simple and forcible language, of which my report of it in the 
abstract has given you no idea. 

I accepted the invitation of the Rector to a place at his 
table, w T here I met his wife and son and daughter, and where 
I expected to become acquainted with the preacher we had 
just heard. It seems he had relatives in the family of one of 
the cottagers, and had gone to take his meal with them. In 
our conversation at dinner, in reference to the excellent dis- 
course of the morning, I remarked : " You may not always be 
so fortunate in opening your pulpit to strangers.'" 

" Mr. S is a stranger in the place, but not to me per- 
sonally. He is a man of enlarged heart and mind, and lovely 

Christian spirit, Pastor of the Presbyterian church at 

bury. He has been long promising to make us a visit, and 
as there are several Presbyterians among us, I was glad of 
the opportunity of their hearing one of their own preachers 
— but he preached nobly to us all, did he not ?" 

" No one," I replied, " heard him with greater pleasure 
than myself. I should be pleased to know him." 

" With all his liberality of sentiment, you would find him 



32 st. johnland: 

as firm a Presbyterian as I am a Churchman. Neither of us 
could conscientiously exchange his ecclesiastical position, but 
that does not hinder his preaching the great truths in which 
we both agree in my pulpit, any more than it would hinder 
my doing the same in his. A few of my people labor under 
the former prejudice on the subject. To help them over it, 
I now and then let them hear sermons when I know they will 
be profitable, from some of my non-Episcopal brethren, espe- 
cially those of churches to which others among the people 
have belonged. These latter are gratified, while it increases 
their good will towards me, and certainly does not les- 
sen it towards the church. You saw how all joined in the 
service this morning. I have some Methodist parishioners, 

and I have promised them to invite Dr. B of New York. 

A number of my best people are Germans, to whom a sermon 
in their own language is a treat, so I occasionally open the 
church of an evening for a Lutheran or Reformed brother, 
when I can induce one to come up here." 

" Do you think," I asked, " a great variety of preachers 
desirable P 

" By no means ; it would not be edifying ; but occasion- 
ally a fresh voice from an earnest heart does us good. I am 
sure it does me good. I can write a better sermon after it. 
It expands and liberalizes the mind to hear the truth in some 
diversity of dialect, as we do in hearing men of different 
theological schools, yet scholars with us in the school of the 
one Faith. Besides, having brethren from around coming 
among us with a brotherly spirit, cherishes our view of 
the Church as the great Evangelist sets it forth — the Brother- 
hood in Christ. St. Johnlanders, as we were told this morn- 
ing, we cannot be strangers to any who are one with us in the 
Faith of St. John. "We accept as prophets and evangelists 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 66 

all who declare the ' testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit 
of prophecy.' You noticed that text on the pulpit? It was 
placed there at the desire of our founder, who meant that 
here should be that Church of the Testimony which at one 
time he planned to have in the city. He designed to show 
in it one form of advance on the part of our Church towards 
union with other Christians, without giving up any of her 
principles." 

" Do members of other churches come to the communion 
with you ?" 

" Certainly ; for how could brothers refuse to meet at the 
table of their Eider Brother ? " 

" What proportion does the number of your communi- 
cants bear to that of your whole adult population ? " 

" About two-thirds, which, though large, is not .surprising, 
considering that the whole place is a church." 

" And with so many Christian agencies," I rejoined. 
" Your Superintendent, when I was here the other day, 
spoke of some ladies — three, I think he said — who have 
taken up their abode among you solely for the purpose of 
doing what good they can among the people." 

" Not solely, but mainly. They had their-> own good also 
in view. Being earnest Christian women, they resolved to 
escape from the conventionalities and distractions of city 
life, which, after long experience, they found so detrimental 
to the spirit of their calling, and to interfere so much with 
the satisfactory discharge of its duties. They hoped for 
more progress in the - divine life in a retirement from at least 
many of the vanities of the world ; and where, by a plainer 
and less expensive style of living, they could use more of 
their means as well as of their time in works of charity and 
usefulness." 



34: ST. JOHNLAND : 

" Then they are not recluses flying from the duties of life 
for a sentimental piety?" 

. " Far from it. They are most useful auxiliaries in my 
work, especially among the mothers, showing them what so 
many of them need to learn — how to manage their children, 
and to be frugal and tidy housekeepers. I can't begin to tell 
how much they have done in improving the condition of 
families wanting to do right, but unused to any method or 
order in their living. The marked cleanliness of the houses 
and of the place generally which you noticed, is very much 
owing to the supervision and influence of these excellent 
persons. In visiting the old men ; in advising the orphan- 
mothers ; in comforting and directing how to nurse the sick, 
and sometimes acting the nurse themselves ; in looking after 
the boys of the shops — in all service of that kind, I don't 
know how I should get along without them." 

" And themselves," I added, "as happy as any of the hap- 
piest they make so ? " 

" Aye ; especially when they have the children for little 
parties at their villas. On Christmas, Easter, and other fes- 
tive days, the old folks as well as the young know them, I 
can assure you. The eldest of them, a widow of consider- 
able property (the others are single ladies of about middle 
ao'e), is our Lady Bountiful ; and seldom has bountifulness, 
as judicious as it is generous, found a sphere in which it is 
so largely rewarded in seeing its fruits." 

While the Rector was telling me this, I was thinking, 
Why couldn't Aunt Hatty come and live here ? She would 
find Dorcas committee business and parish visiting to her 
heart's content, and of a kind less disappointing than that 
she is accustomed to ; and there would be work for her 
leisure, too, besides crochet and netting ; and something to 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 35 

satisfy lier kind nature better than loading her rich nephews 
and nieces with more toys and jewelry than they know what 
to do with. Do show her my letter. She can bring her dog 
Gyp with her if she will. 

I then asked about the society of young men, some of the 
members of which I thought I saw in bluish-grey frocks 
sitting with a squad of boys. 

" You did," he sai , and then gave me an interesting ac- 
count of them, which I will condense for you in as few words 
as possible. It appears that they have been united for seve- 
ral years as a brotherhood, under the style of The Christian 
BrotJiers of St. Johnland, the leading but not exclusive ob- 
ject of which is the self-trial of its members as to their fitness 
for the ministry of Christ. The most of them are aspirants 
for that holy office, but consider themselves strictly on trial 
during the period of three, five, or seven years, the term for 
which, according to their education and other circumstances, 
they enter. At the end of it, if they are persuaded they 
have a divine call to the ministry, they will present them- 
selves for an examination of their intellectual ability, their 
acquaintance with and understanding of the Holy^Scriptures, 
their learning, general information, etc. Should any not be 
found qualified, they will probably have provided against 
that contingency by fitting themselves to become teachers, or 
for some business which they can learn here, and in which 
they can be virtual ministers in the lay ranks, or they may 
continue in the Brotherhood. 

" I see," I remarked. " They are probationers for the 
ministry, rather than candidates becoming ministers of 
course, unless chargeable with some positive moral delin- 
quency. This strikes me as wise and prudent, though not 
always necessary. A young man may be sufficiently sure ot 



36 ST. JOHNLAND: 

himself at the outset ; but ordination considered always 
and from the first, as a settled thing on condition of 
success in intellectual and literary studies, and of general 
good conduct, is one cause of our having clergymen who 
have mistaken their calling. It may increase the quantity, 
but not improve the quality of the ministry. I like this 
self-imposed ordeal of your Brothers. It is at least humble 
and modest. Of course they are in earnest in it ? " 

" They are," rejoined the Rector. " They lead simple, 
self-denying lives, making a reality of taking up the cross. 
They have set times for study and devotion, spending a 
while every day in gardening or farming, in teaching, or in 
the workshops. They assemble in the evenings as a commu- 
nity, but they do* not all live together. Some have apart- 
ments in the Inn ; others live with the cottagers, partaking 
of their homely fare. Five or six have each the care of ten 
of the elder orphan or poor boys in separate cottages of their 
own. As the boys are all day at the shops, where there is a 
refectory for their meals, the Brothers having charge of them 
are not overburdened by it, and have time for their own 
duties." 

" How are they supported ? " I asked. 

"They have funds supplied by their friends outside, 
so that they ask of the corporation only the accommo- 
dation of house-room, though some of them pay for that. 
Two of them are the sons of rich men, who at first opposed 
their joining the community, but now furnish them with 
the small pecuniary means they need, besides adding some- 
thing, it is believed, to their general treasury. They have a 
library, of which several hundred of the most valuable works 

were given them by Dr. C , the beloved friend of our 

founder. It is in a commodious room of the Inn, where 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 37 

they make their recitations and hold their evening meetings. 
For their instruction they have the pastor of the place, to 
whom they are subordinate as his parishioners, and his assist- 
ant, a Moravian Brother ; two clergymen who come for a 
day every week from the city ; and their Senior Brother, 
who is a good scholar in the ancient languages." 

" Then, among your other good things here, you have a 
school of theology ? " 

" An humble one — of Christology" he remarked, " we 
should prefer saying. The Brothers profess a supreme study 
of Christ both for their lives and their doctrine. The Gos- 
pels are their text-books from the beginning to the end of 
their course, with the Epistles as their great expounders. 
With constant prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit 
(so the rules of their community enjoin upon them), they are 
learners of the teaching, the spirit, the character, the offices, 
the perfections, and glory of Jesus the Christ. It is their 
axiom that, independently of all other proofs, He is self- 
evidencing to every mind taught by the Spirit. By His 
light they interpret all Scripture ; and their very belief of 
Scripture rests ultimately on their faith in Christ. But this 
is more than a theme for conversation. I only wished 
briefly to explain why the Brothers, so far as they are stu- 
dents, are young Christologians more specifically than Theo- 
logians." 

" Such a peculiar Christianism of their studies," I re- 
marked, " ought to have a Christianizing effect upon their 
lives." 

" I think it has. They aim to be Christ-like Christians. 
Their rules for their daily life, going into the particulars of 
eating and drinking, dress, recreation, etc., and their holding 
themselves always ready for any service of charity, help 



38 st. johnland: 

them to a near following of their Lord. Some of them I 
call my sub-deacons, and send on Sunday afternoons to do 
missionary work in the neighborhood. Of course, there is a 
difference among them in their earnestness ; sometimes there 
are faults and inconsistencies which call for reproof, or even 
discipline." 

" Are any of them already candidates for orders ?" 

" Five or six, I think, are in this diocese, with the under- 
standing, however, that their candidateship is the ordeal we 
have been speaking of. Some have come from different 
orthodox Churches, in which they may continue when they 
«nter on their missionary life, for it is that which they gene- 
rally look forward to rather than the parochial ministry. 
Several of them are young Germans, full of zeal to labor 
among their countrymen in Kew York. In fact, they go 
there already on lay missions. These will probably be 
ordained for the Lutheran or Reformed Ministry. Thankful 
shall we be to send forth heralds of the Cross, whatever be 
their name, as long as they are true and loyal men to our 
God and His Christ. After the trial of the Brother- 
hood, we should have good hopes of their never proving 
false." 

Would, I thought with myself, that cousin Frank would 
come and try himself here. You know he talks of being a 
parson. He is a lovely youth, of studious habits, well posted 
in church matters ; but sometimes I fear his notion of a par- 
son's life, or that of his doting parents, does not get much 
beyond a nice church and a genteel congregation. 

" From what I have told you of these Brothers," continued 
the Rector, " you must not fancy them a sort of monks. 
They are not that. They are unmarried for the time, but 
are not bound by vows of celibacy, or even to continue in 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 39 

the society. They are expected to complete the term for 
which they enter, at the end of which matrimony will be 
with them a matter of choice. If, as missionaries, they shall 
judge a single life best, for awhile at least, the discipline to 
which they have been used will have been a good prepara- 
tion for it. Our place is thoroughly pervaded with the idea 
of family life. The monastic or ascetic spirit is foreign to its 
genius. Nothing here is in violence with God's appoint- 
ments. Roman Catholicism may have its converts ; it is for 
Evangelical Catholicism to make St. Johnlands." 

I had further pleasant and instructive conversation with 
my kind host and his family until it was time for the child- 
ren's church in the afternoon. That, I found, was not wholly 
a juvenile affair ; a number of the parents and other adults 
being present, whom the Pastor has in his mind in his cate- 
chising and familiar lectures as well as his younger hearers. 
He depends mainly upon these afternoon exercises for the 
sound indoctrination of his flock, preparing himself for them, 
he told me, as carefully as for his sermons. I thought him 
exceedingly happy, engaging and not merely entertaining the 
children ; thus affording a good specimen of such teaching to 
those of the Brothers who were present to witness it, as well 
as to have some eye to the boys. The subject was the pro- 
mises at Baptism, as that sacrament was going to be adminis- 
tered ; and most effectively and affectionately did he bring it 
home to the parents before him who had made those promises, 
some perhaps with too little thought, and to the children who 
had just been saying in their catechism that they believed 
themselves bound to keep them. 

A youthful couple, followed by some elderly people, came 
tip to the font, with their first-born dressed in the plainest 
and purest white. When the questions were put slowly and 



40 st. johnland: 

distinctly, the congregation seemed to hearken how the spon- 
sors, after what the minister had been saying, would answer 
them. They did it audibly, and as if they meant what they 
said. With a smiling interest all gazed at the little one 
enfolded in the surpliced arms, listening for the name — 
Johanna. As soon as the sacred act was done, and the infant 
replaced in the arms of the mother, washing it again with 
her tears of quickened love, the hymn was sung — u Saviour, 
who Thy flock art feeding." After the service there was a 
lingering in the church to get a peep at the new St. Johnlander. 
Many a baby had been born and baptized in the colony, 
but in this instance the young parents had come there 
when boy and girl, and were universal favorites with the 
people. 

I took supper with the ancients of the Inn. One of them, 
who had been at church in the afternoon, said u that the 
young fellow who had had his baby christened was a sort of 
great-nephew of his ; that he had lost his mother when very 
young, and was left by his father, a miserable idler, to the 
chances of the street, infested by vicious urchins that would 
have made him no better than themselves; that he (the old 
uncle) had succeeded in getting him from his father, and 
placed him here, where he has turned out a promising young 
man, very much from one of the Brothers taking a great 
liking to him ; that he was now a smart journeyman carpen- 
ter, and had had a hand in putting up some of the cottages. 
The place has been the saving and the making of him." 

" Aye, and of a lot more," added a voice. 

A company of us sat out on the piazza, my friend of the 
morning keeping at my side. " The sun," he said, " will set 
clear. It is getting through the clouds. So may it be with 
us. We have had clouds overhead in our afternoons. I 



A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 41 

know I have. And some of ns have weathered rough storms. 
Never mind, if it is clear at last. Can't some one strike up 
that verse, ' And at my life's last setting sun.' ' : 

" Wait, until the boys come," said another ; " they'll be here 
presently." It seems that the choristers of the church came 
every Sunday evening to sing for the old men. 

We sat looking over the fading landscape. The village 
in the foreground was in strong light and shade from the 
golden horizon. The half moon above us shot its silver 
rays through the foliage of the trees, and the evening-star 
began to sparkle in the west. My old friend expatiated on 
the glorious scene, when the singers appeared. 

" Now, youngsters," he said, " let us have ' The spacious 
firmament on high.' " 

"Why, sir, that's just what we have been practising for 
you," cried a little fellow ; " Brother Henry said it would be 
so nice on such an evening as this." 

Sweetly they carolled Addison's lines, then some chants, 
ending with Bishop Ken's never-failing vesper lay, " Glory 
to Thee, my God, this night." 

We were in a musing mood. The boys sat making the 
most of the cakes brought them by the matron, and then 
watching the moon-white sails on the water. Two of the 
aged ones leaned over the far end of the railing, solacing 
themselves with their pipes. My friend had one of the boys 
between his knees, with his hands on his head, as if breathing 
a blessing on the child. A swell of psalmody from a neigh- 
boring cottage, where one of the Brothers was holding a 
prayer-meeting, came softly wafted to our ears. The tree- 
frogs and katydids mingled their notes with the woodland 
hum. " Good-night, good-night," said the boys politely with 
a bow, then sprang down the steps, and ran singing over the 



42 ST. JOHNLAND. 

lawn. A good night I had, and next morning bade good-day 
to St. Johnland, thanking God for what I had seen and heard 
in it. 

Yours always, * 

3 K 



I have told my dream . 

And shall that be the end of it? 

Shall it be no more than a dream? 

Before answering the question, my Christian reader, tc 
whom I beg to address it, allow me to ask you to look at 
that which is no dream. Let me turn your eyes to that 
which exists in no aerial regions of the brain, but in regions 
earthly enough and not miles away from your own doors. 
Look at those quarters of your city where the people herd 
by fifties and hundreds in a house, street after street. Look 
at them huddled together in narrow rooms with surroundings 
and effluvia where a half-hour's stay would sicken you. 
See places which might rather be stalls or sties than human 
abodes. Look at the swarms of children in the streets, os. 
the stoops, at the windows, half-naked or in unwashed rags. 
See the crowds of rough, half-grown boys in knots at the 
corners, quick at all sorts of wickedness, loud in foulness and 
blasphemy, the ready and the worst element of your riots. 
Mark the looks and the talk of the populace of the dram- 
shops, and then the exhibitions of godlessness, drunkenness, 
and licentiousness on the Lord's day, turning it, I had almost 
said, into Satan's day. And why do I ask you to look at 
such a revolting state of things among those thousands of 
your neighbors ? In the hope that aught which you or I 
can do will better it ? To propose any scheme for its mate- 



44 st. johnland: 

rial improvement? Alas, no. The evil is too gigantic for 
any grasp of reform at all conceivable. It calls for legisla- 
tive interference ; and that, could any practicable mode of 
melioration be shown, would call for more public virtue 
than exists. This massing of human beings, prolific of 
those vices and miseries, is profitable to too many pockets. 
The exorbitant rents of the smallest dens or of the larger 
tenements swell the gains of landlords, who have the plea 
for any amount of rapacity, that they only meet a demand. 
Their receptacles overflow with those who must have stop- 
ping-places where they can get their bread. The insular 
city cannot be expanded into space for any fit or healthful 
housing of the poor in those quarters of it where they must 
consort.* This stowage of souls and bodies — our municipal 
disgrace — is, I fear, a necessity — in view of its terrible evils, 
a dire necessity — how dire we have not yet seen. 

Our benevolent, reformatory, and religious agencies do 
not stand aloof. They work on with a persistent zeal, 
encouraged by the least success; but anything like the ele- 
vation of a whole locality is beyond their hopes. They 
cannot change circumstances and their inevitable conse- 
quences. They cannot remove causes, and, of course, not 
effects. "What they do to-day is undone to-morrow, to be 
done - again the next day, and then again undone. The 
good seed is perseveringly sown, but the field is already rank 
with tares. The means of salvation are proffered and urged, 
but amid overpowering means of destruction. The noxious 
physical and moral are ever acting and reacting with cumu- 
lative force. The cleanliness which is next to godliness, 

* Unlike Philadelphia, with innumerable separate domicils for its laboring 
and mechanic population — the chief beauty of that beautiful city. 



SHALL IT BE? 45 

among the degraded poor finds no place. In filth sin is in 
its element, and has its most disgusting outgrowths. 

Again, then, why do I ask you to look at a state of things 
confessedly so hopeless? Hopeless in the aggregate, but not 
in the particulars. It would be sad, indeed, if in our dark 
delineation it w T as all dark; dreadful, if in those masses of 
humanity it was all vile. But it is not. There are green spots 
even in those deserts, and doubtless far more than we see. 
The forbidding aspects do not indicate universally corre- 
sponding facts. There are exceptions, and often most in- 
teresting ones. Every here and there are individuals and 
families having a keen sense of the wretchedness of their 
condition, but powerless to escape it. Many of them once 
used to other modes of life, while they submit to their lot, 
yet for its worse than temporal ills cannot be reconciled 
to it. Strangers to aught of domestic comfort, they are 
unrepining, yet not without longings for the sweets and 
decencies of home. They are parents, and cannot be indif- 
ferent to the perils of their offspring. They are hard 
workers. They are above begging, and to keep above it they 
must live as and where they do. For the sake of these it is 
I show you those hapless multitudes — these among them, 
yet not of them ; these toiling, suffering poor ; these Chris- 
tians steadfast amid unchristian influences and antichristian 
forces which would try a more enlightened faith than theirs ; 
these fellow-members of the household of faith, perchance of 
your own particular communion. To the rescue of these 
and theirs, whom they love as you love yours, I invoke you. 
For these I beg Christian homes and privileges, and some 
little share of family enjoyments, to which you cannot think 
they have forfeited every right. You will not say that their 
poverty is their righteous excommunication. To show how 



46 ST. JOIINLAND I 

they may be rescued, I have dreamed of them, transplanted 
by your bounty, to where they can live, and not merely exist. 
I have pictured their colony, with its accessories, such as I 
have long pleased myself with imagining, and as time might 
bring forth. Whether it is all likely to be realized, whether 
some of the forms of the vision are not fond fancies rather 
than probable future facts, matters not. Set down as much 
as you please to the score of imagination ; amend, change 
curtail as you will, only saving the one main idea — a Chris- 
tian industrial community, a rural settlement in which the 
worthy, diligent poor may have becoming abodes, with the 
means and rewards of diligence, together with the provisions 
of the Gospel — will that be dismissed as a dream ? 

It cannot be. It is not to be conceived of Christians 
who are in the midst of plenty, encompassed by a gracious 
and bountiful Providence, having scarce a wish within the 
wide limits of their means ungratified, and acknowledging 
their responsibility for the use of their manifold gifts and 
opportunities, that they will turn aside from a practical 
philanthropy commending itself, so entirely as this must, 
to their minds and hearts : a scheme not to increase, but to 
lessen the numbers of dependents upon alms-giving ; not to 
encourage and so multiply the indolent poor, but to help 
them to help themselves; to lift them up to an honest inde- 
pendence; to give them what on any scale of Christian jus- 
tice is their due; to save them from ever struggling in vain ; 
to extricate them from necessities binding them hand and 
foot, a prey to wretchedness, sorely tempting them to seek 
relief in sin ; to give a brotherly hand to them, amid all their 
homeliness, as to brothers and sisters in Christ. A scheme 
not for to-day or to-morrow, but to make virtuous and happy 
generations of those who else would swell the generations of 



SHALL IT BE? 47 

vice and misery in this metropolis, where they are already 
bo frightfully augmenting. 

Or do you, or you my reader, yet hesitate ? Let me come 
down from generalities to actual every-day sights, and those 
immediately around myself. Look at that sad woman who 
the other day brought her emaciated boy to the Hospital, 
needing food more than medicine. She had lost her hus- 
band in the war ; had not got the bounty ; had six other 
children, which she was trying to keep together by such 
work as she could get ; " but oh, the rear basement," she 
said, " where we stop, is always so wet !" Or that young 
man who lately sought admission to our wards, with 
incipient phthisis, for which the doctor recommended him 
the country. No wonder he was consumptive, for he had 
long been sewing, early and late, on the tailor's board, with 
fourteen others, in a close, dark room in the rear of the shop. 
Or that good old brother of eighty-live, who, in intelligence 
and piety, might compare with the venerable one fancied in 
our sketch. He does not require medical or surgical treat- 
ment. He is a beneficiary of one of the hospital associations, 
who begged us to receive him, as his only home must be here 
or on Blackwell's Island. Shall we send him there ? Or that 
other aged one of seventy-six, who has been a consistent com- 
municant of our Church since he was thirty ; a well informed, 
reading old man, driven here by sickness from his sky par- 
lor, where his bed has been sometimes drenched with rain. 
Or that sweet-faced young girl, waiting for the last agony 
of a heart disease, contracted by bending over her needle 
sixteen hours out of the eighteen, to support her enfeebled 
mother. Or that hard-working woman, who was sent here 
by a dispensary physician, hoping we might give her woik 
while she was being treated for her eyes, which would never 



48 st. johnland: 

be better while she lived on tea and bread * Or in another 
direction, look in at the Factory, where I lately saw children 
who the overseer told me are confined there thirteen and a 



* On asking the Superintending Sister of the Hospital for some further instance 
among ourselves, she penned me the following, which had occurred that day. It 
is too long for the text, but it is so much to the point, that, rather than omit or 
abridge it, I insert it here: 

Mrs. M., the mother of one of our little patients in the Children's Ward, came to 
my room this morning, looking neat and respectable as usual, but with a more 
worn and anxious face than is common with her. She is a favorite with us foi 
her tidiness, her tenderness to her children, and the courage and industry with 
which she turns her hand to any honest employment that may help support the 
family, left by the feeble health of her husband almost wholly to her care. A 
message had been sent her, to say that Johnny was cured of the long and tedi- 
ous sickness for which he came into the Hospital, and that we should like her to 
take him home, to make room for one more needing it. I supposed that hei 
visit had reference to this ; and after we had talked together a little of her hus- 
band's health, and the beauty of the new few-weeks-old baby, so delightfully 
clean and nice, which she had brought with her, I thought nothing remained but 
to bid her and her boy good-bye. But she lingered near me as if unwilling to 
leave, and then (she is not used to begging) said, hesitatingly: 

" Would it be a thing not to be thought of, Sister, that Johnny should stay 
another month or so?" 

"And why do you ask that?" I inquired. 

" Well, you see, my husband's worse nor common, and this little young one 
hinders me from doing as much washing and house-cleaning as I did afore he 
was born — and everything's so dear, I don't know at all how to give the blessed 
boy the food he'll be looking for, after living here so long. We've got a poorer 
way of getting along than ever, these times — just one room and a bit of a bed- 
room; sometimes a fire, and sometimes not; sometimes a good meal, and more 
times not. But that isn't the worst; Johnny's getting so good now, and learning 
so good ; and if he comes home he'll grow to be just as bad as he was afore you 
took him ; for the children in our alley are an awful wicked lot, and I can't keep 
him always shut up in our close place ; and when I'm out working I can't 
watch him." 

" I know how that is," I said ; " and it is very sorrowful." 

" Oh > Sister, indeed you don't begin to know what it is! You can't think whal 



SHALL IT BE? 49 

half hours every day, allowing a half-hour for each of their 
meals. In the winter they come long before light, through 
frost and snow, and are not free until eight at night. 

Or if you must see with your own eyes, go to the places 
where so many of the youth of the lower classes spend 
their working hours, the upper floors of mills and factories, 
horse-hair workers, artificial flower makers, and other of 
the lighter departments of our various manufactures where 
young women, especially, are congregated. Visit some 
narrow, ill-ventilated workroom at the back of a second 
class milliner's store. From twelve to fifteen young girls 
are employed there, collected without reference to morals, 
manners, or any other qualification than the skill with 
which they can ply their needle and shape to the fashion 
of the day the gay fabrics given to their hand. They 

the poor children hear and pick up ! "Why, my youngest little girl, not three 
year old, curses dreadfully ; and the more I say about it the worse she does it." 

" Curses ! She can't know the meaning of the words ?" 

"I can't tell," said the poor mother; " only I know she is always ready with 
some bad word when anything angers her, and what to do I can't tell. Johnny's 
so sweet and good spoken- now, wouldn't it be a pity for Mm to come back to 
the like of that ?" 

Surely it would, and what could I say to comfort the distressed mother? 
Your St. Johnland naturally came to my mind. 

" Wouldn't it be good," I said, " if you could have a little home in some quiet 
country place, with work enough, and godly people to help you bring up the 
children rightly?" 

" Oh, Sister, sure it would ; but what's the use of the like of me thinking of 
that?" 

" That's true ; but some one else might think of it for you, and by-and-by, per- 
haps, bring it about ; and then it wouldn't grieve you to have Johnny home again." 

" Ah, no !" she sighed out, incredulous of the possibility of any such boon to 
her and hers. " But what about Johnny now, Sister ?" 

And she did not leave me until it was agreed that, for the present at least, he 
should remain with us. 

4 



50 st. johnland: 

work together from ten to eleven consecutive hours, with 
a brief intermission at noon for the cold, scanty meal they 
have with them. Their occupation is in itself conducive 
to vanity ; light thoughts and words spring up almost 
naturally where it is carried on, and a moral atmosphere 
is engendered which few can breathe without deadly hurt 
~Not that this is a picture of all such establishments, but 
it is a type of too many. And now see the homes 
to which many of them go when they leave their work. 
"What wonder if their dreariness and dulness drive them to 
the theatre, the dance house, and still lower haunts. Most 
of these, sad to think, may be doomed to such a life, having 
learnt to love it. But some, to the joy of their parents, 
might be transferred to a better, and how many others we 
know not might be saved from it beforehand, by giving 
them employment in such a colony as we have imagined. 

Spare a morning to accompany to his district a visitoi 
of The Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor 
Go with him around his accustomed beat. Passing through 
scenes varied, but alike in cheerlessness, stop with him at a 
room, forlorn, yet not untidy, where the inmates receive you 
with mingled courtesy and shame. You see at once they are 
worthy of far other circumstances. Hear their past, see 
their present, and for their future will you say, " Am I my 
brother's keeper ?" Pursue your exploring with the visitor 
in foul and dingy rears, in blind alleys, in walled up courts, 
where the sun has not leave to shine, nor the air to stir; see 
pale weavers in damp earthy cellars, seamstresses in closets, 
mothers with babies in stifling pens, friendless widows 
in attic cells, children with white faces and bright eyes 
crawling in the dirt — among them wild flowers of beauty 
that you would fain transplant, to grow and bloom in a gar- 



SHALL IT BE? 51 

den of the Lord* — So use a few hours, and then, returning 
to your own goodly mansion, survey it with the sights through 
which you have just passed still in your eye. Look through 
your suites of apartments with all their apparatus of com- 
fort and ease, their adornments of luxury and elegance — see 
how much might be taken away and still superfluities re- 
main — consider your daily mode of life, your table, your 
dress, your equipage, your entertainments, your domestic 
and social pleasures — see them in the light of those con- 
trasts which it pained you to behold, and methinks you too 
must have dreams of a St. Johnland ; — God grant you may 
not only dream. 

Will it be said, that these are not the times in which to 
expect the means for such an enterprise ? But the times sup- 
ply the means for new enterprises of every kind, and for all 
that people desire to the last extremes of indulgence. Rather 
these are the very times for turning money, now of more 
uncertain value than ever, into foundations of permanent 
good. Now, when the stocks of the market are so fickle, is 
the opportunity for investments in the stocks of charity and 
benevolence, of which the rates of interest never change. 

* In representing the condition of the poor in the overcrowded districts of our 
city, I have drawn but a faint picture of the reality. The last Report of the 
Society for Improving the Condition of the Toor — a document full of practical 
thought and. wisdom, which deserves to be pondered by every citizen, says 
of Cellar Residences : " It is the reproach of our city government, after all the 
startling developments which have been made on this subject, that not less 
than six thousand families, consisting of about eighteen thousand persons, con- 
tinue to live in these unhealthy underground habitations.' 1 '' These, of course, 
would not be likely families for our colony, but one in a hundred might — and 
sure they are worth the saving. The cellar missionaries must sometimes wish 
for such a place. 



52 ST. JOHNLAND: 

Especially are these the times for making provision for those 
who are the greatest sufferers by the times — the bereaved 
families, the widows and orphans of the fallen defenders of 
our country. To make homes for such, is one of the objects 
of St. Johnland. 

Let us now consider the scheme in a practical light. 

Tarn not from it as one of too great magnitude. While 
admitting it to be excellent and in every way desirable, set 
it not down as beyond the bounds of practicability. It 
would be so, were it proposed to be accomplished at once — 
of course it is not ; no one would think of it, except as a 
thing of growth and gradual development. Its beginning 
may be comparatively small and easy. In our retrospect we 
have looked at it in its maturity, and as what it might come 
to be at the end of some eight oi\ten years. Besides, in 
that range of anticipation there are adjuncts which would be 
valuable but not integral parts of the plan. For instance, 
the Church of the Testimony and the Society of Christian 
Brothers.* In determining the feasibility of the project, let 
it be considered simply as a plan for providing homes, work, 
and the Church, in the country for the deserving poor, in- 
cluding the Old Men's Home, and leaving other desirable 
things to come about as they may. 

The first requisite, in order that the scheme may go into 

* These have been long cherished hopes of my life. As I may not see them 
realized, and wishing to give them an ideal existence, I took the opportunity of 
exhibiting them as I have done in the letters. Some such organization as the 
Christian Brothers' we must have in our large cities, if we are ever to deal 
effectually with their poor. Should that come to pass fancied in our colony, and 
the latter be not too distant, it might do good service working in our city, 
for which the Brothers might be detailed in companies,.. and by turns, according 
to a system having due regard to their studies. 



SHALL IT BE? 53 

effect, is that it be adopted by a number of gentlemen, who in 
due time shall be incorporated as the Trustees of St. Johnland, 
— to secure which is the primary object in the circulation of 
the present pamphlet. Supposing it accomplished, the enter- 
prise will come before the public under the auspices of names 
which will show that it is no longer a dream, and that it is 
really to have a place on terra firma. The measures to be 
taken at its outset, the raising of money necessary for a begir. 
ning, the finding of suitable land, will be the initiatory busi- 
ness of the Trustees ; — accordingly what here follows is only 
suggestion on my part, offered with the view of showing how 
the work might proceed. 

The site of land, chosen with regard to comfort in winter 
as well as in summer, nigh to woods and water, of some 
two or three hundred acres, should be about thirty miles from 
the city of New York, within the State, and not distant from 
a station on a railroad, the Harlem or Hudson River Road 
to be preferred. It would greatly facilitate the undertaking 
if the land had upon it a house commodious and large enough 
— or capable of being made so — to serve for the Old Men's 
Home, with which part of the plan it would be desirable to 
make a beginning, not because it is the first in importance, 
but because the want of such an institution is very generally 
felt. I have already several thousand dollars contributed 
towards it, in view, too, of its being located in the country 
rather than in the city. The house for a while might be 
the residence of the pastor, and its hall, or one of its apart- 
ments, the place of public worship. In the event of the 
enterprise going no further, the house with a few acres 
could be set off as a separate establishment, complete in it- 
self, and the remainder disposed of at the option of the trus- 
tees. But waiving that contingency, trusting it would not 



54 st. johnland: 

occur, and supposing the funds to be secured for the erection 
of a number of cottages, double ones, perhaps, to begin with, 
attention should then be turned to the selection of the right 
sort of families to occupy them. This should be done with 
great care. A vast deal would depend on the character of 
the first settlers. They must be pattern people to give the 
right tone to the society — the leaven to leaven the lump, and 
that to be gradually added to with homogeneous materials. 

With respect to employment for the people at the com- 
mencement, there would be no difficulty. I hear of women 
in the country getting a living by sewing caps, garmentr, 
upper leathers, carpet bags, &c, and sending their work regu> 
larly to the city. An extensive manufacturer, on my men- 
tioning the scheme to him, said he could supply a large num- 
ber of female hands with work, who could do it without 
inconvenience to him, at a moderate distance from the city. 
Various employments would also be found for men, espe- 
cially as the settlement increased. 

One desideratum, of prime and early importance, remains 
to be mentioned, and that is the devotion to the work of some 
capable minister of the Episcopal Church, who shall feel 
drawn towards it by what is said in the foregoing pages, and 
be willing to give himself to it without reserve. Considered 
as a domestic mission, it would be a most promising one, and 
as such well worthy the labors of almost any clergyman cal- 
culated for it. I hope to enter upon it myself (not resigning 
for the present St. Luke's Hospital), but at my time of life I 
cannot expect to do much beyond a beginning. I should 
at once need a coadjutor qualified to become the principal ; a 
man with his heart in the pastoral office, a plain and earnest 
preacher, affectioning the poor, and conversant with them, 
of some experience in life, with energies still fresh, and now 



SHALL IT BE? 55 

in exercise in some field of active Christian work. Happy 
shall I be to hear of such an associate, who at first would 
have more or less of the duties of Superintendent. 

In conclusion, I beg earnestly to commend the undertaking 
to the consideration of my Christian brethren, especially 
those who have the means to carry it into effect, with the 
prayer that they may be disposed to do so by Him, whose 
good Spirit I humbly trust has put it into my mind. 

Communications offering aid, or naming suitable land, or 
touching any point in the letters which may excite interest 
or inquiry, may be adddressed to the subscriber, 

W. A. MUHLENBERG. 

St. Luke's Hospital, New York, 
November 18, 1864. 



56 COKRESPONDENCE. 



CORRESPONDENCE 



I have great pleasure in subjoining the following letter 
from Robert M. Hartley, Esq., Secretary of the Society 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor in this city : 

39 Bible House, New York, 
September 30, 1864. 

Rev. ¥m. A. Muhlenberg, D.D. : 

My dear Friend: I have met with interruptions, or 
you would have heard from me sooner. It now affords me 
sincere pleasure to comply with your request in giving you 
my impressions of the embryo enterprise you have so 
happily delineated in the manuscript you read to me. 

As I listened with deepening interest to your graphic 
account of "St. Johnland," with its various assemblages of 
kindred objects harmoniously adjusted into a system for 
beneficent ends, I was delighted with the picture, and dis- 
covered nothing incongruous or incoherent in its parts, or 
impracticable in the plan so ingeniously projected. 

Your dream is not all a dream. It develops a new 
method of doing good, and invests that method with pecu- 
liar attractions. If I correctly apprehend the scheme, it 
involves no action at variance with the philosophy of phi- 
lanthropy, or the principles of social science, so called ; and 
certainly none that are unsanctioned by the Gospel. On the 
contrary, it appears to be based on sound practical views 
which are fitted, when carried out, to produce in a good 
degree the results you anticipate. Judging your plan, 



CORRESPONDENCE. 57 

therefore, in the light of its own principles and objects, it 
should commend itself to the confidence and patronage of 
all who care for these things. 

What are the objects referred to ? I may not from 
memory enumerate them all ; but, if I recollect correctly, 
it comes within their scope to discriminate between honest 
poverty and imposture ; to elevate and not debase by inju- 
dicious kindness ; to reclaim the intemperate ; sympathize 
with the suffering ; counsel the erring ; stimulate the indo- 
lent ; give work to the idle ; thrift to the thriftless ; instruc- 
tion to the ignorant ; an asylum to the aged ; moral and 
industrial training to the young — and, peradventure, re- 
formers to the world ; to make, in fine, all influences — 
sanitary, social, physical, moral, and religious — subservient 
to the elevation of a class which abounds in the crowded 
purlieus of this great city — the poverty-stricken and the 
tempted — who are suffering, sinking, perishing, in the ab- 
sence of such a provision as it is the design of your enter- 
prise to secure. 

It is neither undervaluing the importance nor the efficiency 
of Christianity to affirm that it acts not in opposition to the 
laws of nature, but in accordance w T ith them ; success, 
therefore, can only be predicated of such agencies and 
operations as harmonize with these laws. Reason and 
Revelation both teach that the spiritual is no tfirst, but the 
natural ; and afterwards that which is spiritual. Nor should 
this order be reversed. Physically constituted as man is, 
such regard should be had to his physical condition as shall 
have a favorable bearing on his discipline and development. 
His senses being the inlet to those influences which either 
exalt or degrade character, it is necessary to his improve- 
ment that such influences be of a kind which shall neither 
corrupt the soul nor neutralize good impressions. Excep- 
tional cases do not invalidate, but establish the rule. If it 
were a gratuitous mockery of wretchedness to tell men to 
live by faith who were famishing for food, would there be 
greater consistency in expecting purity of heart and cha 



58 CORRESPONDENCE. 

racter among those whose physical circumstances were 
utterly incompatible with the common decencies of life? 
Such methods of reform are as contrary to nature and the 
dictates of experience as to the teachings of Christianity, 
and can only result in disappointment. Men do not gather 
grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles; neither should we 
expect social elevation from the depths of physical degrada- 
tion, nor yet moral purity from the hot-beds of vice and 
corruption. Without more effective exertions than have 
yet been made to improve the wretched domiciliary condi- 
tion of large masses of our population, it is to be feared that 
most other efforts for their benefit, however faithfully prose- 
cuted, will signally fail of their object. The direction of your 
thoughts, therefore, to this subject is most opportune; and I 
think I do not misjudge in saying that, to the extent your 
vision of " St. Johnland " is practically realized, it will aid 
in meeting a great public necessity. 

Although this letter is unexpectedly lengthened, allow me 
to refer very briefly to one feature of your scheme, which is 
so peculiar as to merit notice. Your enterprise once in 
operation, though purely beneficent, will be mainly self- 
supporting. And this result is secured by avoiding the too 
common mistake of making that a charity which should be 
the earnings of prudent industry. As no gratuitous benefits 
are designed for your tenantry, self-reliance will not be 
undermined, nor improper motives be presented to induce 
any to seek your establishment. On the contrary, the 
prospect of a healthful and comfortable home for less rent 
than is paid for miserable city tenements would stimulate 
exertion, while its possession would exert a very salutary 
influence in reforming and elevating character. Commer- 
cial remuneration, in a word, so far as practicable, with 
benevolent results, is the only sound principle, either on a 
large or smaller scale, of improving the domiciliary condi- 
tion of the poor. 

If, in conclusion, I may venture to touch another topic, it 
would be the denominational character of your enterprise^ 



CORRESPONDENCE. 59 

• 

l r our preferences attach you to one branch of the Church 
militant, mine to another. "Is, then, Christ divided?" 
Nay ; if we are His, are we not one in Him ? Why not, then, 
forget our differences, a'nd labor together in His work as 
brethren of the same household? If (as you believe) less 
exclusiveness would actually impair its harmony and effi- 
ciency, then, I say, it should come under the jurisdiction of 
one denomination. To some this may prove an objection ; 
but to me it matters not whether of "Paul, or Apollos, or 
Cephas," if all be of Christ. 

That you may be divinely guided and prospered, is the 
wish of 

Yours very sincerely, 

Robert M. Hartley. 

Kew Tore, 

October 8, 1864. 
My dear. Mr. Hartley : 

I thank you for your letter. Your cordial approbation of 
the scheme submitted to your opinion, with your philosophic 
examination of it, gives me increased confidence in its success. 
The endorsement of one who is known to have devoted him- 
self so long and so ably to the true interests of our city poor, 
and who so well understands their wants and how they 
should be met, will secure for me the attention of many who 
otherwise might take me at my word, and set me down for a 
dreamer. 

Allow me to say a few words touching the last paragraph 
of your letter. I think you seem to prefer that the proposed 
settlement, in its religion, should not be what we call denomi- 
national ; but if you keep in view one main feature of the 
plan, you will perceive that that is both necessary and desir- 
able. The people are to have pastoral care and supervision. 
That is to be one great means of their spiritual and moral 
improvement, and a main security for the general good or- 
der. Now the Pastor will necessarily be of some one denomi- 
nation of Christians, according to the order of which he will 



60 CORRESPONDENCE. 

conduct his ministrations. This implies conformity on the 
part of the people, else there could be no faithful or effective 
pastorate ; and without such a pastorate, the place, in its reli- 
gious or ecclesiastical character, would be quite another thing 
from that contemplated. Were the people to depend for 
their Church-services upon a succession of ministers, they 
would look up to no one as their spiritual teacher or overseer. 
They would be sheep without a shepherd. The only prac- 
ticable course, if the religious element is not to be seconda- 
ry, is to have one church, and one pastor, with such aid of 
his own choosing as he might need — a Pastor, however, who 
would have regard for the religious predilections among 
his people in the spirit of charity, but not of indifference to 
vital error. 

St. Johnland originating with Episcopalians, its Church 
would of course be theirs. But probably others than Epis- 
copalians would be more or less among the inhabitants. 
Certainly there could be no exclusion of them. Suppose that 
some of these should proceed to set up a place of worship 
of their own, separating themselves from the charge of the 
Kector, that is from the Church jurisdiction of the place. This 
would be a violation of the understanding on the subject, 
and, more than that, might be the beginning of unhappy dis- 
sensions. Yet to forbid it might look like intolerance. It 
must be prevented— t -forestalled / and how? JSTot by not esta- 
blishing one particular form of Christianity, but by adminis- 
tering that form in the spirit of a wider Christianity. In other 
words, by having a Rector or Pastor acting and feeling like 
the one sketched in the prospectus — a man true to his own 
Church, but not ignoring her sister Churches, and pleased to 
show his fellowship with them by a practical recognition of 
their preachers as fellow- evangelists with him in the testi- 
mony of the Gospel. This would be good policy on his part ; 
but it must be more. It must be an enlarged Christian spi- 
rit, and a conciliatory temper which would also allow the 
indulgence of religious tastes and preferences in private 
ways, not interfering with the Church order of the place. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 61 

Still, some might not be satisfied. If so, they would have the 
spirit of schismatics, and should find their abodes somewhere 
else. 

In this, however, I have been anticipating a state of 
things not likely to occur in a community of no greater size 
than that projected. I have endeavored to state sound prin- 
ciples of general application. Thus, should you set on foot 
a Church Industrial Settlement, it would of course be Pres- 
byterian — not excluding, I well know, all non-Presbyterian 
preachers of the Gospel. Bat if some Episcopalians among 
your settlers should separate from your Pastor, and attend 
only services of their own, you would remonstrate with 
them; showing them how unbrotherly, and therefore un- 
churchlike, their conduct was in refusing to worship with 
their fellow-Christians. If they persisted, you could convince 
them that they were out of place in your St. Johnland. 

The multiplication of such denominational institutions of 
industry and benevolence, and so conducted, would not 
increase among us the denominational spirit. It would les- 
sen it. Working in and for them, we should realize the one- 
ness of our common faith. Conscientiously maintaining our 
respective forms and doctrines, yet looking at one another 
less through their disguising medium and more through the 
clearer and higher atmosphere of charity, we shall see more 
and more of our family likeness in the one household of the 
Lord. 

With these explanations, in which I have been more dif- 
fuse than may have been necessary, I am sure you will 
allow that while my St. Johnland must be " denominational," 
it will not be exclusive ; and that consistently I may join 
you in asking with the Apostle, " Is Christ, then, divided?" 
With great esteem, 

Yours sincerely, 

W. A. Muhlenberg. 



62 CORRESPONDENCE. 

39 Bible House, 

October 12, 1864. 

Key. Dr. Muhlenberg : 

My dear Sir: After reading jour favor just received, I 
do not regret writing the last paragraph of my letter, since 
it has drawn from your pen so lucid and satisfactory an expo- 
sition of your views on the matter there referred to. 

Allow me, however, to say, that I neither misapprehended 
that important feature of the plan which you have now more 
fully unfolded and explained, nor, for myself, conceived the 
least objection thereto. On the contrary, such a denomina- 
tional connection and pastoral oversight as your enterprise 
suggests and provides, appeared to me, as you have expressed 
it, " both necessary and desirable." And if, on a first view 
of your organization, other minds, as I feared, might be dif- 
ferently impressed, such impressions, I now rejoice to 
believe, will soon disappear in the clear and convincing 
light your letter has shed upon the subject. 

Accept the renewed assurance of my high regard, 

Yours very truly, 
E-. M. Hartley. 



w. 



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